By the time Aussie rockers Cold Chisel did their sold-out farewell shows at the Sydney Entertainment Centre in December of 1983, they had established themselves as one of the all-time legendary bands down under. But this is the album that lit the fuse in the days when the crowds were eager but thin. After migrating from their home town of Adelaide, South Australia, to the big smoke of Sydney in 1977, the Chisels gained a rep for slugging it out on the pub circuit with an ardor worthy of their illustrious forebears AC/DC. But as Cold Chisel clearly illustrates, Chisel was a band married as much to melody as power.

Cosmic Messenger is more elegant, European-flavored jazz-rock from the French virtuoso Jean-Luc Ponty, and pretty much in the same mold as his previous Atlantic albums but with gradually tightening control over every parameter of performance. Ponty's analog-delay special effects on the title track are spectacular, and the album is loaded more than ever with revolving electronic arpeggios as Ponty's own involvement with the ARP synthesizer grows. But there is still plenty of his fluid, slippery electric violin soloing to be heard within the tight structures of these pieces, and the tunes themselves are often pretty good. In addition, this fusion express finds its way into the funk on "The Art of Happiness," and there are some tricky rhythmic experiments on some tunes.

Born in Forlì (Italy) in 1951, Riccardo Zappa is widely recognized as the greatest Italian acoustic guitarist. For five consecutive years he was voted the best in the poll promoted by the famous monthly magazine "Guitar Club". After that, he was declared to be no longer eligible for nomination. His music is in fact quite unique in the whole Italian prog scene; not can many other comparisons be found outside Italy, except perhaps Mike Oldfield, for his long, acoustic-based instrumental compositions.
His unmistakable trademark is the "Ovation" guitar, an instrument with a striking nasal sound, very suited to being handled with special effects. His first work, "Auhlela & Zappa" was recorded in 1974 as a duo, with lyrics and vocals by Klaus Auhlela and music by Riccardo Zappa himself…

Departure from the Northern Wasteland, a classic of the progressive electronic genre, contains four pieces that are almost perfect in their realization of the sequencer as a compositional tool. Hoenig took the concept of repetitive music further than most anyone in his homeland and claimed his inspiration was drawn from American minimalist composers Philip Glass, Steve Reich, and Terry Riley. The title track is a sublime 20-minute journey through ever-changing melodic and rhythmic phase relationships, creating the vivid sensation of a train ride through misty Northern European landscapes. "Hanging Garden Transfer" then speeds things up a little and is therefore less ideally suited for falling asleep (or waking you up). "Voices of Where" makes the picture of Path Finder on the desolate planet of Mars, appear before the mind’s eye, searching for any proof of life: not a single beat, just wonderful dreamscapes…

La Düsseldorf is Klaus Dinger's side project after the scission of Neu! in 1975. In this musical adventure, Dinger is accompanied by Thomas Dinger and Hans Lampe who also participated to the recording of the third and last Neu! The self titled album "La Dusseldorf" was released in 1976, venturing from avant-garde for concrete noises, manipulated sounds, pre-punk atmospheres. This album has a total disregard for musical convention, the musicians don't hesitate to mix without restriction a bunch of sounds taken from a great variety of musical styles (with pop accents, motoric "electronic" pulses, krautrock weird instrumentals and punk's eccentricity). After this original and diverse collection of experiments, the band recorded their second "Viva" in 1978…

Intermittently on the road as an acoustic duo between gaps in the schedules of their respective ultra-hip fusion bands, Larry Coryell and Steve Khan managed to record several shows and then panned the tape stream to find the nuggets for posterity. There are choices that might have been made out of the fashions of the day, such as the version of Chick Corea's "Spain" that opens the album's first side. Thankfully there are also selections that are here because both guitarists must have realized they were playing magnificently.

Henry Mancini really needs no introduction. His music is as much a part of the twentieth century as rock 'n' roll, the Lennon and McCartney partnership, jazz and the great American songbook. This Vocalion release compiles two albums from the later part of Mancini's more than twenty-year association with the RCA Victor label, and both show that he was more than able to 'get with it' in the funky 1970s. This is borne out in Mancini's Angels (1977), which, of course, is a paraphrase of 'Charlie's Angels', the massively popular US TV show that invited viewers into the glamorous world of a trio of beautiful female private detectives. In 1978 Henry Mancini and his orchestra were back in the studio to record The Theme Scene, another exploration of film and television music…

Troubles, Troubles was originally recorded for Sonet, but is probably better known through its re-release as Lost in the Blues by Alligator. Lost in the Blues was justifiably criticized because of the decision to have Lucky Peterson overdub a bunch of keyboards in order to give it a more "contemporary" (read: more "Alligator") sound. This release is of the original album (with a couple bonus alternate takes) without all the overdubbing, and is a vast improvement over the Alligator version. But how does it stand as an Otis Rush album? It's a very good set – perhaps "comfortable" says it best – recorded with Rush's longstanding band of Bob Levis on rhythm guitar, Bob Stroger on bass, and Jesse Lewis Green on drums (despite what the package says).

Dire Straits is the debut studio album by the British rock band Dire Straits released on 7 October 1978 by Vertigo Records internationally and by Warner Bros. Records in the United States. The album produced the hit single "Sultans of Swing", which reached #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and number 8 on the UK Singles Chart. The album reached #1 on album charts in Germany, Australia and France, #2 in the United States and #5 in the United Kingdom. Dire Straits was later certified double-platinum in both the United States and the United Kingdom.

In many ways the fifth Judas Priest studio album, "Hell Bent for Leather" (aka "Killing Machine" outside the US) released in the fall of 1978 is the band's definitive album, showcasing all their strengths and epitomizing what this heavy metal group is all about. The album was produced during the period they adopted the "leather & studs" style breaking new ground in heavy metal sound and image. Although gothic themes are present the album isn't truly dark or morbid, the band is as aggressive and brutally intense as ever. The blistering two-guitar attack and shreds of Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing will melt your head - the solos have some serious attitude, and by now Rob Halford had established his quite unique, much lower and more menacing, vocal style…